A-B InBev wins EU trademark for 'Bud'

Anheuser-Busch InBev was granted trademark rights throughout the European Union for the word "Bud" for beer.

The Bud trademark was registered by the EU's authority for the intellectual property right, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, brewery officials said Wednesday, according to Bloomberg.

Frank Hellwig, global legal director for A-B InBev, said in a statement, "While we have national rights for Bud and Budweiser in many European Union member states, it fills in the remaining gaps that we had. We now have more countries covered by Bud or Budweiser trademark registrations than we have had at any point in time in the 137-year history of the brand."

The trademark registration follows A-B InBev's victory earlier this year in its long-running trademark clash over the Bud name with Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar. In January, the Luxembourg-based General Court of the European Union rejected an appeal by Budvar in a latest suit challenging A-B InBev's use of the Bud trademark.

Budvar didn't appeal the January court decision, and A-B InBev said its Bud registration was approved June 14 by the EU trademark office, Bloomberg reports.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch is part of Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE: BUD), which reported a first-quarter profit of $2.53 billion on revenue of $9.17 billion.